#patio blocks

[inspiredlivingspaces]

IG houseandgardenuk

[johnschneiderblog]

Penny pinchers

When some blocks came loose on the neighbor’s terraced steps leading to his front porch, he lifted them up and found something perplexing.

The mortar between the blocks was packed with pennies. Yes, pennies - plain old one-cent pieces. What you see in this photo is only a small sample. This clearly wasn’t the result of a glass piggy bank accidentally dropped on the bricks; this was obviously intentional.

I turned to the Internet for an explanation and, amazingly enough, found one. In fact, I found three, only one of which seems applicable in this case.

First, there’s the time-capsule theory: Put current-year pennines under the blocks and when, in the future, somebody rearranges them, they’ll know exactly what year the terrace was built. (The dates on my neighbor’s pennies are all over the map).

Then there’s the “good luck” theory: Burying a coin under a new floor, doorstep, or foundation, according to ancient traditions, is a symbol of prosperity. In my neighbor’s case there were too many pennies to make that plausible.

The third possibility - the most mundane one - seems to be the likeliest in this particular case: Builders sometimes use pennies as spacers or shims to level pavers, or prevent stones from sinking into wet mortar.